Which the Mask Cannot Hide
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: False information was what she was actually hoping for. ... Jade was hoping to exorcise the ghost by murdering her husband's last hope.


**A/N: Just a little piece continuing off of the end of "Bloodlines" because we didn't get the full reaction to two Roys in the room, now did we?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own, I do not own, I do not own.**

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**_Which the Mask Cannot Hide_**

Really, she didn't think it was possible.

The intel she'd gotten was from a scumbag who'd gotten his information from another scumbag who got his information from some kind of dealer and down the line it went. Jade didn't even trust the information, honestly. It was a business of liars and she'd gotten the information from a bunch of liars and it was, as far as she was concerned, just one long chain of dirty, nasty lies.

Tibet? Who would hide a valuable pawn of war in a foreign country nowhere near the actual fight? And how had they moved it from America to Tibet without any records or paper trails? None of it added up, but she'd put all her chips in for Roy. She had to dig him out of his own grave.

As much as she hated to admit it, she did love Roy. Getting married? He'd just needed someone to hold onto him through he initial recovery period. Jade had fallen hard after that, dropping most of the crime and actually getting a decent job using her Crock last name rather than Nguyen, which was red flagged in every city, county, state, and country. She cleaned up for him, but he hadn't returned the favor.

False information was what she was actually hoping for. She told him she went through all the work and pulled all he'd strings and called out every favor. If this wasn't it, Speedy was forever lost and Red Arrow had to live a good life to honor the fallen Roy's memory. Jade was hoping to exorcise the ghost by murdering her husband's last hope.

Being an assassin, she'd never been afraid to kill people, let alone their dreams.

Shocked wasn't even the right word. The mask hid her expression as she saw that, just as her intel had said, the building stood at the given coordinates. She was dumbfounded, awestruck, astonished. Jade didn't think it would be there. She expected to trek back within the next ten minutes, but then there was the actual building and Roy's hope had risen again...

The mask hid her stupor.

Inside, she'd been trying to stay calm and convince herself that the original Roy wouldn't be here. No. It wasn't possible. Cadmus was organized so that the source material would be terminated...

Guards. Oh how she loathed guards, not even their duty so much as their presence. It proved something worth a fight lay behind the temple walls. Jade kept Lian tucked close and let Roy take the battle head-on. She would protect their daughter at all costs. After all, she'd put all her money on this so that Speedy's ghost would finally die, an inspired mystery, a cold case. Maybe with the dead remaining so, Lian would stand a chance at having a father.

The dead would not remain buried.

The pod hissed open and a younger form of her own husband dropped out, smaller, more fragile, missing an arm. Jade gasped not with shock but with dread, and despite how the mask had hidden her hatred in prior moments, it failed to silence sounds.

He shot a look over his shoulder at his wife and young daughter, his mask hiding the blue orbs but none of the directed venom in the obvious glare. "You didn't want me to find him, did you?" spat the archer.

"What do you plan on doing with him now?" asked the cat in a dark, taunting voice. "After all, he's the one I'm married to. His name, at least." Anger filled her countenance but the smiling cat upon her face his it. "And who's going to take care of him, Red? You and I? We have a daughter, and as much as I'd like to say the assassin business pays, it only gets so far on the bills." One hand even falls on her hip. "I'd know."

"Ol-"

"As if." She stepped closer, directing an unseen glare in the original Harper's direction. "The Justice League wants nothing to do with you, and I doubt they want to know that it was I who helped you find him, let alone the fact that you're married and have a daughter." Jade leaned down, careful not to jostle Lian too much, and traced his jaw line with one slow, seductive finger. "Come on, Red, we're both smarter than that. And how are we supposed to get him out of here anyways?"

"You want me to put him back." Not a question. A statement.

"Why speak with the dead? Leave them in their graves. In your will, you can write something and let the League come for him, but it's pointless to save him now while you're still alive." Cheshire looked over the limp, unconscious body, fearing that he'd wake up; she just couldn't have that, now could she? "He'd take over your life. May even kill you for what you did."

"I didn't know!" His voice was a hiss, defensive yet livid.

"But will he believe you?"

Lian chose that moment to squeal and reach her tiny hands towards her father, trying to get his attention. Her precious eyes shone bright like the stars, a beautiful baby girl that was all theirs.

There was no room for Speedy, no room for another. After all, that's why Jade had wanted him to find the missing boy. So he would stop thinking about Speedy and let the ghost die.

Hell, she didn't think they'd actually find him.

Roy lifted the limp body and carefully managed to get him back in the pod just as he was stirring awake. Red Arrow carefully tucked him away inside and pressed a button, letting the chamber hiss shut again and put Roy Harper back to sleep for another sixty or seventy years.

What was the harm in a little bit more suspended animation?

She tucked Lian close and began to put their precious daughter back in her pack, tucked away safely from the wind and cold. Cheshire never removed her mask, not wanting to show he'd husband how pleased she was with _his _decision. The Cheshire smile hid some things perfectly...

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**A/N: …review?**

**~Sky**


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